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ANGLO-CATHOLIC HISTORY SOCIETY Newsletter—December 2012

EDITORIAL At time when a new Archbishop of has just been appointed it is appropriate that one of our members should publish a biographical study of one of his predecessors, who held the office from 1928 – 1942. Members will recall that the author, Father Robert Beaken, lectured to the Society in February 2008. His talk was entitled, “Their Proper Place. Archbishop Lang and Anglo-Catholicism”. The book itself has already been favourably reviewed in by Christopher Howse who reports “I am immensely enthusiastic about Robert Beaken’s Cosmo Gordon Lang…it establishes a vivid and convincing picture of the man at the helm of the Church of …” A review by our chairman is printed below and I have negotiated a special reduced rate for purchase of the book directly from the publishers – see the enclosed flier and order form.

HENRY FYNES-CLINTON Another of our members, Father John Salter, has also published an important book at the present time. It comes in the form of the Society’s latest Occasional Paper and is a personal memoir of a leading Anglican Papalist, Father Henry Fynes-Clinton. Copies are available to members from the Secretary at £18 including postage. It is the first study to be published about Fr Fynes, a significant figure in Anglo-Catholicism of the first half of the Twentieth Century. The front of this Newsletter reproduces a snapshot taken of Father Fynes in old age which appears on the cover of the book in colour.

RECEPTION ON FEBRUARY 4 AT ST MAGNUS’ CHURCH To mark the publication of this book there will be a special event. On Monday February 4th 2013 the Society and the Church of St. Magnus the Martyr, Bridge, are holding a reception from 6.30 pm to 8pm to mark the publication of Father John Salter’s personal portrait of Father H.J. Fynes-Clinton. He was of course for many years of St. Magnus and we are very grateful to Father Philip Warner and his people for hosting the event, to which all are welcome. Father Salter may be persuaded to say a few words.

THE SOCIETY’S LONDON CHURCH WALK – OCTOBER 6 The by now well established autumn walk took place as usual this year and once again the rain held off. A large contingent with some new faces met at St. Silas, Pentonville where we were given a warm welcome including coffee. We then moved via St. Mark, Myddleton Square to Holy Redeemer, Clerkenwell, with its wonderful furnishings, then to St. Alban, Holborn, where we were able to see the Victorian chapel, built as a Memorial to Father Mackonochie. It is not usually open to the public and bears a mural which is yet un-restored following war-time damage. Our final stop before lunch was Holy Cross, Cromer Street, now much tidier than once was the case, where Father Cawse gave us an inspiring and illuminating talk. Following the lunch break we re-assembled at St. George’s, Bloomsbury, refurbished magnificently during the incumbency of our Chairman. Next stop was at All Saints, Margaret Street, which has recently been fully restored, revealing the bright colours of the glorious internal decoration. A long walk along Oxford Street brought us to the

Church of the Annunciation, Marble Arch and our final visit, to the Grosvenor Chapel, . All seemed to enjoy themselves and as always we profited from the knowledge of others on the walk.

THE NOVEMBER LECTURE AT , STRAND Dr Peter Nockles’s lecture entitled “The and the United States of America” is to be printed and will be sent to members early in the New Year.

WINTER 2013 LECTURE TO BE HELD AT ST CLEMENT DANES The Winter Meeting will take place on MONDAY 28th JANUARY at 7pm in the crypt of St Clement Danes Church in the Strand. The lecture will be given by one of our members, the Reverend Stephen Stavrou, who will speak on “Anglo-Catholics and Icons”. Father Stavrou is the at St Michael’s Church, Bedford Park, West London; he completed his M Phil at on the subject of this lecture. Father Stephen is a young scholar and the Society is committed to encourage new writers and researchers. All members are urged to attend in support of what promises to be an interesting talk on a subject the Society has not yet heard in our lectures.

ADVANCE NOTICE OF THE AGM AND SUMMER LECTURE This will be held on Monday June 10 at St Clement Danes. It will be followed by the AGM lecture, this year by Dr Julian Litten on a fascinating figure in Anglo-Catholic history. The lecture is entitled “Ambrose Thomas (1880-1959), aka Marquis d’Oisy: An eccentric exotic on the fringe of 1920s Anglo-Catholicism”. A postulant to Fr Ventham, Thomas toyed with the religious life at Caldey before turning his attention to the theatre. Having disappeared from the scene in 1902 he reappeared in Thaxted in 1917 as the Marquis d’Oisy, spending the remainder of his life painting second-hand furniture and ecclesiastical fittings in an outrageous baroque manner, devising pageants and making female theatrical couture. He died in poverty and lies buried in an unmarked grave at Dunmow, Essex. A further notice will be sent out nearer the time.

FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS The next volume of Michael Yelton’s series on Lost London Churches is well under way. A great deal has been unearthed from a variety of sources and there is more still to come. Particularly interesting is information on now almost forgotten bastions of the Faith such as All Hallows, Southwark, a wonderful church in a poor area which was bombed in the War and rebuilt only in a small part and St. Columb, Notting Hill, which was once a flourishing centre but was then handed over to the Serbs over 60 years ago. Pictures are also being assembled. This will be our next publication. Richard McEwen is working on Lost Churches of Manchester which is hoped will be the fifth in our “Lost Churches” series, after Stephen Savage’s two Leeds titles and the two books on London losses by Michael Yelton. In the inter-War decades the architect J. Harold Gibbons (1878-1958) designed a number of fine modernist churches for Anglo-Catholic mainly in the expanding London suburbs. Robert Drake, a leading member of the Twentieth Century Society, is researching Gibbon’s predominantly ecclesiastical practice and is collaborating with ACHS on this project.

Members will recall that the Society earlier published a ground-breaking book on another Twentieth Century Anglo-catholic architect, Ernest Shearman. In addition to a book, it is planned that the project will include a lecture by Robert and a coach tour of Gibbon’s London churches led by him.

SUBSCRIPTION REMINDER Members are reminded that 2013 subscriptions are due on January 1st. The rates are now as follows: UK and Europe £20.00, Elsewhere – Surface mailings £20.00, Air mailings £30.00. Members in the UK paying by Banker’s Standing Order need, of course, to take no action but if you pay by cheque please remember to post to the Society’s address on the enclosed sheet.

A FORGOTTEN ANGLO-CATHOLIC

Blue Plaque to Memory of Anglo-Catholic Father Charles Jenkinson became Vicar of Holbeck, Leeds, in 1927. He had asked to be appointed to the hardest in the country! There were two churches, St John’s and St Barnabas’, and the local housing conditions were horrendous. He campaigned indefatigably for slum clearance and new building of a good standard. He was elected to the city council, became chairman of the housing committee and saw the whole of his parish demolished, together with the two churches. A splendid new estate was built at Belle Isle, in South Leeds and the new church there named St John and St Barnabas’. Furnishings and fittings were brought from the old churches to be reused in the new building. The story is briefly told in Stephen Savage’s Mission Accomplished, chapter 2. Jenkinson was a prophetic and heroic figure. He is an inspiring example of an Anglo-Catholic priest standing alongside his people, passionately concerned with social issues in an area of squalor and dark satanic mills, and determined to see Jerusalem built in England’s green and pleasant land. The Leeds Civic Trust has erected a Blue Plaque to the memory of Charles Jenkinson. This was unveiled by the Lord Mayor, Alan Taylor, Vicar of St Aidan’s, Leeds, on Sunday 12th February 2012. The plaque was then suitably blessed, censed and sprinked with Holy Water by the curate, Fr David Hayes. Amazingly, Canon Taylor was baptised by Charles Jenkinson himself!

BOOK REVIEWS

Cosmo Gordon Lang: Archbishop in War and Peace (I.B. Tauris, £25) Reviewed by Dr Perry Butler I attended the talk on Archbishop Lang given by Fr. Beaken at the Institute of Historical Research which is mentioned at the beginning of this book and as a result I invited him to address our society on the intriguing question, “Was Lang an Anglo-Catholic?” Now DOCTOR Beaken he has turned his PhD from King’s London into a book which seeks to present a “revisionist “ view of the Archbishop and his impact. As Archbishop Rowan Williams writes in a Forward, “History and biography have not dealt kindly with Lang”. Beaken points out that this owes much to the fact that Alan Don his was unable to take on the task and the biography that appeared in 1948 was undertaken by J G Lockhart who never met Lang and who was certainly in no position to undertake the detailed trawling through the archival material (Lang’s papers at Lambeth, Don’s diary and many other collections) on which Dr Beaken’s study is based. After 60 years and much negative criticism a new assessment was overdue and so this book is welcome for that alone. This book is based on an exhaustive examination of the material available and he has also interviewed people who knew Lang including the late Queen Mother.

This is not however a biography of Lang but rather a critical account of Lang’s archiepiscopate focussing on three significant areas: the Abdication Crisis; the Revised Prayer Book and Lang’s leadership during the Second World War. Biographical material relating to Lang’s early life and career before he became Archbishop is condensed into a first chapter of 42 pages. In that chapter the author does, however, discuss “head on” recent speculation that Lang was a repressed homosexual, providing evidence that this rests on rather flimsy evidence and that it is possible to give a more subtle understanding of his relationship with some of his and also his relationship with women (which has been largely ignored). The book does not deal with foreign affairs, though further discussion of this is promised. Undoubtedly his findings regarding the part Lang played in the Abdication Crisis, the subject of a television documentary in which Beaken took part, will excite the interest of the wider public. For us the chapter on the 1928 Prayer Book is perhaps the most interesting, discussing Lang’s role in Prayer Book revision and highlighting his relationship with and attitude towards, the more advanced Anglo-Catholicism of the inter-war period. Lang himself remained very much the English Catholic of the 1880s and 90s. The final section does much to demonstrate that the importance of Lang’s wartime leadership has been undervalued and his role was more significant and creative than has usually been presented. Has the author succeeded in this evaluation? Much that is negative about Lang survives scrutiny deriving as it mostly does from the outworkings of his undoubtedly complex personality. Orpen’s famous remark when painting his portrait, “I see seven Archbishops”. But I think Beaken does succeed in showing that much that has been written about Lang is unbalanced, prejudiced and misleading and he presents the case for the defence in a skilful but moderate way. He portrays an Archbishop who he admits was not a “great” Archbishop but one that in the context within which he worked deserves to be called a good Archbishop and possibly a very good Archbishop. It was hardly his fault that he was “appointed too soon, and translated to Canterbury too late in life”(Lockhart, p.239). Dr Beaken is to be congratulated on a fine piece of work, well researched, perceptive and clearly and engagingly written. Unlike many academic theses it is not dense and heavy going. I.B.Taurus have done a good job (though I spotted a few typos) and the photographs are quite atmospheric. I rather hope our new Archbishop will read it! [Note: the book is published at £25 but members may obtain it a reduced price of £17.50 using the enclosed order form. This must be sent direct to the publisher, not to the Society]

A Church on Jarrom Street: 150 Years of St Andrew’s, Leicester by Paul Griffiths (ISBN 978-1-871344-32-5) Reviewed by Stephen Savage This attractively produced little book is beautifully illustrated and packs a lot of fascinating information in its 48 pages and 12 illustrations. Reading this makes me want to visit St Andrew’s, Leicester. Its story is in many ways typical of an urban Anglo-Catholic parish and Paul Griffiths successfully relates trends and developments at St Andrew’s to changes taking place in the Leicester community and in the more widely. The brief summary of the principles of the Oxford Movement is very useful, as is the description of the work of the architect of the church, George Gilbert Scott. The Diocesan Church Extension Fund was instrumental in getting the church built and here in Jarrom Street, in what for decades was “a close-knit, homogenous artisan community with lots of character and vitality” they provided “a bold structure, very much out of the common way”.

I always read a book like this with an old copy of Crockford’s at my right hand as individual clergy I have encountered elsewhere tend to turn up unexpectedly. I had, alas, not heard of most of the who served so devotedly at St Andrew’s but I was very interested to learn that one I knew of, Father L.A. Matthews, was its vicar, for thirteen years (1915-28). He was building on well-laid foundations and so an established tradition was robustly “reinvigorated and developed”. From Leicester Fr Matthews moved to London to become Organizing Secretary for the Anglo-Catholic Congress. Enormous changes came to the church and parish in the twentieth century. There was demolition and a precipitous decline in population from 7,000 to 2,000. Inevitably “a sense of uncertainty and anxiety hung over the parish for more than 20 years,” but the church remained, as an island of stability. The situation did improve: St Andrew’s was still needed in the changed locality, with its large hospital and university. The church was maintained in good order and the church hall refurbished. This is a story of a faithful people and their hard-working priests. We read from the beginning of the centrality of the Mass, the importance of teaching, mission, and of service to the community. These key traditions continue. Altogether a most inspiring story – and do go for a visit. Available from Publications, 5 Southernhay Avenue, Leicester, LE3 3TU. £4.50 per copy plus £1 postage. Cheque payable to “St Andrew’s Church, Leicester”. Order online at www.kairos-press.co.uk

Episodes in the Gothic Revival – six church architects, edited by Christopher Webster (Spire Books Ltd., PO Box 2336, Reading, RG4 5WJ) Reviewed by Stephen Savage This splendid book will be of interest to many members of the ACHS. On the front cover there is a fine photograph of Street’s St James the Less, Pimlico, visited during our walking tour in October 2011. The featured architects are John Carter, Thomas Rickman, Thomas Taylor, R.C. Carpenter, G.E. Street and J.T. Micklethwaite. In the chapter on Micklethwaite, by Michael Port, are two splendid illustrations of St Hilda’s, Leeds, visited by the Society in 2007. The other contributors are Terry Friedman, Christopher Webster, John Elliott, Neil Jackson and Peter Howell. Each author is the recognised scholar on his particular architect. A good read and wonderfully illustrated. £34.95.

AUTUMN LECTURE 2012 The AUTUMN LECTURE has unfortunately had to be rescheduled. It will now be given by Dr Peter Nockles at St Clement Danes Church on MONDAY 19th NOVEMBER at 7pm at St Clement Danes Church.The Strand. The title is “The Tractarians and the American Episcopal Church.” Dr Nockles is based at the John Rylands Library in Manchester and has written extensively on the Tractarian Movement over the last twenty years. It is fair to say that his book, “The Oxford Movement in Context”, published in 1994, which charted the divergence between the Old High Churchmen and the younger Oxford men, was a major contribution to Tractarian Studies breaking new ground. Many regard it as the most significant book on the Oxford Movement in a generation. We are therefore particularly pleased Dr Nockles is able to address us. All of our meetings are open to non-members who are most welcome